49' Patina bagged in PA

[99 to Life]

reaper, is the striker suppose to be tight in the claw? with mine they have play back and forth which seems odd to me. So I'd have to be extremely accurate in where the striker lands so its on the far end of the claw so it can't move back and forth. I don't it if moched up yet to shut it and see how it performs.

here is a deadbolt lock I made for my 51'. It mounts behind the door jam and sends the bolt through the door. It's powered by a remote.

I'm thinking about making a set for this truck, so I can just keep the bear claws to a minimal. I'll already have to fab up a bracket to either run an actuator inside and or make it so the turn down handles work with the mech, which seems like a lot of pissing around.

[reaper71]

99, Yes they do have a bit of play in them, but once the door is shut you never notice any movement (if you have a chance go back through my build on the door latches maybe it will help) Starts on page 5.
The design of these latches give you alot of adjustment in them. (keep in mind if you do not have your rubber around the door opening yet they will fit different so you will need some fine tuning)

[reaper71]

On the dead bolt idea...Safety or Security??

If it's to keep the doors from flying open the latches have a safety portion in them. Meaning if they did "pop" it would still hold on the 2nd portion that is in the design of the latch.

Security..We live in a smaller town and no real threat of someone stealing our Rides here

Hope all this helps, any other questions feel free to ask.

Mark...

[99 to Life]

yeah I was gonna ask around seeing if people like to install the claws bf or after the door rubber is on. I know the rubber would settle a bit so I'm sure movement might become normal. Mine is not installed yet. Do you have any preference on that?

as for the lock. Its more for security. I don't want anyone opening the doors day or night that have no business doing so. I also usually turn off my kill switch and have little toggles inline with the ignition etc so its pretty darn hard to figure out how to start it.

[reaper71]

When I installed my latches I didn't have the rubber yet so I know that it may change the way the door closes etc. later on. Not really a big deal or anything just keep in mind you may need to adjust a bit.

As for the security thing I learned years ago with a custom truck I built when I was still in High School (had shaved handles) and a thief wanted in the truck and couldn't figure out how to get in they simply tried prying the door open and completely tore up the door and B pillar!! ( and I had a show that weekend) So i figured if they want in that bad they will do whatever it takes to get in!! locks or No locks..
Just my 2 cents.

Mark...

[lower50's]

I somewhat agree reaper71, but a bent door is better than a missing truck. I have had my 67 jeep for 20 years no door locks, no top sometimes but I do have 2 keys. You just have to make it harder.

[99 to Life]

4-17 Oh there is just no way I could go without locks. For one I hate thieves, the truck will be in the city quite a bit, and lastly its a selling point for the truck. Today was a good day, considering I didn't even work on the truck. I had to shovel about a ton of gravel up to the garage for my ramp. I drove it out the garage almost 17months to the day I started it.

Still plenty of things I need to iron out and do. I need to mount DS running board, get some wheel spacers for rear so tires don't rub bed and get a smaller PWS belt and or clearance the pump so I can tighten the belt. thats the only thing keeping me from tearing down the road. Then I need to finish interior and the door latches. also need to fix my hood spring and get my latch on.

I think I'm going to bring the front of the bed up and inch bc it looks like it rakes (in garage was showing level) also rear wheel placement isn't terrible but it can come forward a bit. I adjusted my lower link bars out since my driveshaft was a tad long. But I think I can go forward and still make the DS work. If worse case I'll have the DS cut shorter.

I may post up a vid of it but its really nothing too exciting.

[oldman3]

99, looks great, nice pics, thanks for sharing....Jim

[Advanced Design]

Awesome 99! Looking very good outside!

[99 to Life]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr9MTvyJVOs
thanks guys, here is a little vid. nothing special. hood isn't latched, PWS belt squeeling cause its too loose and Efan is loud as hell. but you get the idea

[lower50's]

Oh so cool 99. Looks great out in the wilderness. Congrats

[Advanced Design]

Thanks for the video. Good feeling to have them moving under their own power. The loud efan is the sound of the modern hot rod I think. Way to go 99! Be glad when my Burb gets there.

[oldman3]

99, Thanks for the video, nice to see it moving around...Jim

[IWanna49]

Man, they sure look good sittin' together!! Gotta feel real real,good to get it out of the shop and in some fresh air.

I hear ya on thieves. I grew up in a small town and we never locked the cars or our house. Moved to the city and have been hit five times over the years-every time because the vehicle was unlocked. Real PIA. I lock everything now.

[99 to Life]

4-18 thanks guys, yeah yesterday was a good and loooong awaited day. Lower50's we are def out in the wilderness, miles of dirt road, its where I grew up for alot of my life. My mom lives there, so I have a compound all fenced in that I store my stuff and work on them in some rinky dink garages.

Today kinda sucked, go figure. I have a good day and feel kinda weird "like when is something wrong gonna happen" cause I deal with alot of that. So I spent hours on this bear claw set up.

Lets just say it looks sooo ghetto right now, but its just temporary. I'll be making a custom plate for the bear claw that mounts to the door. The plate shown was the factory plate I hacked up and as is the plate with the striker in it. I had to widen that plate and relocate the striker alot, and then plug weld the old hole. It took forever trying to figure out where it was gonna land and was restricted by the fact that I wanted the striker plate to use the existing 4 bolts holes that are already there. Needless to say, it actually works as of now, like I said I'll be making a custom plate for the latch to bolt and bolt up to the door. I just don't wanna weld to the door and deal with all that. Plus how the hell do you get the latch in there? Remove the window track? I didn't like that, so it really kept me on the "bolt" on version. I'm gonna make a nice version when its all said and done. Prolly get some nice allen bolts for all of it too.

The pass side, I made a striker plate from scratch. Just copied the one I wasted so much time on and boom, took like 20 min to cut drill and test fit and weld a filler piece in behind. So the pass door should take way less time and hopefully come out really nice. Then onto the interior latch and figure out what I'm gonna do for the rest of the system.

[Sim6]

Looks great. Great work.

[Advanced Design]

Nice work on the latches 99. Hours...I've spent hours last two weekends getting Lokar shifter and brackets to work on the 56...so I feel it too.
We are in the sticks here, 10 miles from a small town, only lock house door if gone overnight, vehicles usually unlocked.

[MIKESAD50]

They both look great 99

[99 to Life]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkWp9d6i3HY

4-20 Mon, I didn't get the claws all finished up. I spent some time on the pass door getting it set. Of course it isn't fitting so well and needs some tweaking. I'm thinking its the hinge. Spent some time mounting my DS running board. My dumbace forgot to drill the holes in that side (custom made brackets) so I had the brackets and nests all done just couldn't actually bolt it on. So that is done.

Got a vid for ya, some tach action with my one tach and then the tach conversion I made. also tossed in the bear claw in action.

gonna keep posting videos. hopefully get some better ones next weekend of it on the road. I got a smaller belt for my PWS so that is finally fixed. Gonna bounce around with metal work on rear fenders and interior soon. Just alot of little things to address still but its almost road worthy. Need to button up the exhaust asap.

[Advanced Design]

Love the video, nice job on the latch...good solid thunk...and engine sounds great!

[lower50's]

Great job on the tach!! I'm thinking of something similar. The motor revs nice and quick.

[99 to Life]

thanks guys, i'll get some clips of the tach installed should look pretty cool. Lower 50's hit me up if you need any help, its a cheap conversion. I'll be doing the speedo soon.

[iowaboynca]

nice job. Everything is coming along great.
Posted via Mobile Device

[99 to Life]

4-25 thanks guys. Not much to report. Got tach in and lite for the most part. PIA doing the conversion, got to get the needle perfect while its idling. I had the unit a tad too far inward and the needle was touching the glass, so I had to tear it apart and reset the unit.

Got inner door panels done for the most part too. Just need to get door handles and windows in and get the handles on. Pics don't do it much justice. Got my seat being made with this material and another. I'll post pics when it is done.

another outside shot. spent a couple hours on the hood and as with everything, NOT exaggerating one bit, everything fights me on this truck. my 51' was a dream shutting and lining up good. this one I knew I'd have problems since through the years they had a bad hinge and forced the hood down so bad, it bent and broke it. So now lining it up and getting it to latch is a PIA. I got some tweaking to do still. I even jacked up the grille to make sure its not a height issue and it doesn't appear to be. Infact the hood is hitting on the pass side when I put pressure on it, yet it won't latch well.

list is still a bit stout, need some dang money to get the rest of the things I need. Heater, work on wipers, carpet, door crap, exhaust straps and turndowns.

[oldman3]

99, work got done, that's the good part. Everything looks great...Jim